“I ask your pardon, but I don’t understand you.”
“I don’t suppose you do.”
“Countess,” said Christian, coming down the ladder, “I bought the herrings as you bade me; but there is no salt salmon in the market to-day.”
“To whom are you speaking?” inquired Countess, with an expression of fun about the corners of her lips.
“You,” replied Christian in surprise.
“Then, perhaps you will have the goodness to call me by my Christian name, which is Sarah.”
“O Countess! have you been baptised?”
“I have.”
“By the hermit?”
“By the hermit.”